heavy programs

BRISBANE coal seam gas explorer Comet Ridge is about to start regional aeromagnetic surveys that have been specifically designed to identify the most prospective areas for CSG deposits over two of its New Zealand licences.
“I think the plane is due to arrive in Waikato tomorrow and to start the first survey soon after that,” Comet chief executive Tor McCaul told PetroleumNews.net from the company’s Queensland head office this morning.

The first survey will be over parts of the 3667 square kilometre PEP 50280 where Comet subsidiary Chartwell NZ early this year drilled the Matata-1 exploration core hole well within the Whangamarino coal field that encountered a thicker-than-expected sedimentary sequence but insufficiently developed Waikato coal measures.

The second survey will be over the western parts of the formerly 8722sq.km West Coast lease PEP 50279 in the Buller, Reefton and Murchison areas of the South Island.

Chartwell drilled the Painkiller Creek 1 well in the permit last March but did not find the Buller coal measures were sufficiently developed, though the well was close to an existing coal field.

Comet’s latest annual report said the results of this well highlighted the challenges of exploring in a region that had rapid and abrupt changes within the coal measures.

McCaul told PNN today that Comet Ridge had just relinquished 3943sq.km of the original lease, giving away the rugged inland area to concentrate on 4779sq.km of coastal land.

The first round of the regional aeromagnetic surveys may be followed by more detailed aeromagnetic and aero gravity surveys during the first half of 2010.

Meanwhile, McCaul said Chartwell was about halfway through drilling the deep Macdonald-5C CSG core appraisal well in West Coast mining licence PMP 50100.

The well, near the town of Greymouth, has been designed to assess the commercial CSG potential of the Brunner and Paparoa coal measure sequences and has a planned total depth of about 1170m, about twice as deep as previous CSG wells drilled into the Brunner.

Chartwell operates PMP50100 with 20% equity, while private New Zealand investment company Macdonald Investments (MIL) presently holds 80%, though Macdonald-5C is being drilled as part of the Phase 2 farm-in program that will earn Chartwell a further 30% equity in the permit that it and MIL believe could hold up to 175 billion cubic feet of CSG resource.